..there is evidence that Roman rule was not that effective, in Cornwall, then it's history goes on to Norman Conquest, ok so then William the Conqueror and his brother were the biggest land owners and that's where the to this day modern day relevance comes in for duke or duchess of Cornwall. What a nice little bit of ancient history meets modern day splendor. The history is real rich.

Cornwall was quite an isolated English county, Thumbahlina, until the later part of the 19th century, after the railways arrived. The Cornish were very independent and believed that England began once the river Tamar had been crossed! It was a place of small villages and tin mining and pilchard fishermen and had its own language, which was similar to Breton.

If you read the lists of country origins at the bottom of the article, it's not just Commonwealth countries.

My guess is that because of the emphasis on organic, British farms aren't able to meet the demand that Duchy Organic has; the article says that they try to buy as much British as they can.

Think about it - if you need 100 kilos of organic carrots, and British farms are only able to provide you with 50 kilos, you have to get the other 50 from somewhere else (the numbers here are obviously made up).

Why not both? I eat mostly organic, buy local when things are in season but eat food sourced from other areas where it makes sense. (No ones finding locally sourced pineapple in February in Massachusetts for example)

The Prince of Wales is fighting a move that would force him to open up the Duchy of Cornwall, his 700-year-old private estate, to public scrutiny, arguing that it is not a public authority.

The dispute centres on how millions of oysters are farmed on the Helford River, near Falmouth, Cornwall, which is owned by the Duchy.

In 2011, an Information Rights Tribunal ruled that the Duchy was no longer exempt from freedom of information laws and must therefore disclose information on activity that impacts the environment under Environmental Information Regulations.

However, the Duchy, which last year provided the Prince with an income of nearly £20 million, lodged an appeal before successfully applying for a stay of proceedings while a test case concerning whether private bodies can be treated as “hybrids” of private and public bodies was heard in the European Court.